Malicious Speech

Before I get into the main topic of my article, there are two announcements I’d like to make. One is from me, and one is a book trailer from AEC. I know I haven’t been putting AEC book trailers on my blog, but I think it’s about time I do that, starting with the most recent one and working my way backwards. So let me welcome K.D. Keenan’s The Obsidian Mirror!

I hope you will all consider checking it out!

Now on to my next piece of news.

I am starting a newsletter, and I would love it if you all subscribed! Here is what my newsletter will include:

• The main content will be an original article from me, an article catered to something I think others would find interesting. I’ll even be willing to take requests.
• I’ll have book recommendations included. And it isn’t necessarily books I’ve read, either, but books I think are worth checking out.
• Sometimes I’ll have cover reveals from other authors, and if you’re an author in need of a cover reveal, I can absolutely help out–but I’d also appreciate it if you subscribed as well.
• I’ll have links to prominent articles I’ve written on Tumblr and wordpress.
• I’ll include a few author-related updates, so you’ll be the first to know any special, important news I have before that news is actually released to the public.
• I may include excerpts from books I’m working on.
• Links to podcasts and Youtube videos I’ve done.
• And anything else that might be pertinent and/or fun.

I’ll be willing to take requests as well.

Until I get everything together, I’ll have to manually add you to the subscriber’s list, so I hope you will follow my newsletter! It’ll likely be a monthly one, and I’ll try to keep a consistent date so that way you know when to expect it in your inbox.

So if you would like to subscribe to my newsletter, you can just e-mail me your e-mail address (or leave it in the comments if you are comfortable), sending it to thedancingwriter@gmail.com, and I’ll add you to the list. Once I get about 20 or so subscribers, I’ll release the first newsletter.

I already have a few already, so hopefully I can send out the first one soon!

Now on to the meat of the article.

Yesterday I came across a blog on Tumblr fully devoted to hate speech against gender and sexual minorities–as well as a dash of racism thrown in. This person believes those in the GSM community are oppressive and enslaving heterosexuals and shoving their lifestyles down the throats of heterosexuals. I’ll admit I’ve seen some pics from Pride Parades, and some are a bit tasteless, but I’d still attend one and show my asexual pride. They also believe people in the GSM community are sick in the head and need help–and have used slurs to insult these people. They also believe, of course, that asexuality doesn’t exist, and that no one gives a crap about asexuals. Even lovelier, when someone tried to educate them on asexuality, this person told the asexual anon to go and die. I could go on and on about the malicious speech posted all around the blog, not just in posts, but also posted in the pages on the user’s blog.

I’m going to state that when the anons did retaliate, they stooped to a lower level than this user did, and that is not okay. But the point is that it is an unsafe blog and can be triggering for many in the GSM community, who are already dealing with some serious issues, just for being GSM. Many asexuals were triggered by the malicious hate speech, and as someone passionate about issues within the GSM community, I went on ahead and reported the blogger, citing links of the malicious speech. I could have cited a bunch more, but I figured the links I provided were enough. And I encouraged my followers to do the same. I know one did, but I would like for many more to follow.

Of course, I could have easily ignored this blog. After all, won’t this user eventually get bored?

Probably not.

I know people like this user, and they’re never going to get bored spouting their malicious speech, even if they are never provoked. They’ll do post after post after post out of some sick desire to promote everything they hate, no matter how much they’re ignored. After all, what prompted  the onslaught to begin with was one post they posted, which prompted people to respond, and then many more posts followed. This isn’t one ignorant user posting just one thing and that’s it. This one person is going to continue posting malicious speech against things this person finds appalling. A glance through the ‘about me’ page shows just that. So I, and many others, could ignore this person, but ignoring one person who spouts malicious speech means having to tolerate malicious speech, and we shouldn’t have to do that.

Internet trolls are sadists and psychopaths. They get off on just posting hate speech, even if that hate speech is ignored. Not to mention, again, if we ignore blatant hate speech, we have to tolerate it. It’s not as if I go around reporting every blog with a person who has an ignorant opinion. One blog compared asexuality to necrophilia and pedophilia, but the post was so laughable–and it was a once-only thing–so I didn’t even bother reporting it. I felt compelled to report this one, because this blog makes GSM people feel unsafe going into tags that should make them feel safe. They’re hurt by this malicious speech. This malicious speech might prompt some to hate themselves for who they are. Malicious hate speech can be so damaging that it’s shocking this person doesn’t even care about how others feel because of the malicious speech. So, while some anons were outright  nasty, the response to these anons indicated the user did not care in the slightest, while others absolutely are harmed by the malicious speech–and may have been harmed by some of what the anons said, who did use slurs.

So reporting this blog is about the safety of those people. Tumblr can be filled with sheer awfulness, but it can also be filled with sheer support from people who are like you, which is why I’m trying to befriend as many aces as possible on Tumblr. My blog is primarily for writing advice, but I will stand up for the GSM community because it is something I’m very, very close to, and Tumblr is a great platform to try to help those feel safe within the GSM community.

In summary, we should not tolerate rampant hate speech coming from one person. Ignoring isn’t going to do as much as we’d like it to do, because, again, internet trolls are sadists and psychopaths who are never going to get bored. More often than not, a person’s internet persona is who they really are.